Full-Time Fighter: Sean Salmon Discusses UFC 69, Training for UFC 71

As of the last blog, I have had a lot of requests to hear about my training schedule and I will get to that. However, with Saturday’s pay per view, I would love to give my thoughts.

First, I was very happy to read that Marcus Davis won. He did some of his training in West Chester, Ohio at Jorge Gurgel’s gym. I did not get a chance to become real friends with him, but he did offer a lot of coaching from a boxing standpoint that helped me a great deal. Marcus is a very hard worker and a fighter that I now have a lot of respect for and will always cheer for.

I took a lot of interest in the Kendall Grove vs. Alan Belcher fight since I am dropping to middleweight. I did not know anything about Belcher before this fight; however, he showed he is tough. Kendall really seems to get better with every fight and is someone that the rest of the 185-pound weight class should have a close eye on.

Obviously, I was also focused on the Mike Swick vs. Yushin Okami fight. Like most of you, I didn’t know much about Okami other than his record, which is impressive. The guy proved he is very tough and belongs near the top of the middleweight rankings. Despite the outcome, I think Swick is still right up there. It was a matchup of two very good fighters, but someone had to win.

Roger Huerta vs. Leonard Garcia was the fight of the night by far! I will forever be a fan of both of those athletes. WOW!!!

I was very impressed with the Diego Sanchez vs. Josh Koscheck fight. Honestly, I did not know who to cheer for because I am not a big fan of the personal trash talking, but I have never been in a situation where I did not like the person I was about to fight — and I hope that I never am. If pressed, I would say I was behind Koscheck because of his wrestling background. But, I really thought Diego would win. He has been so impressive in his other fights. Koscheck had a great gameplan and executed it to perfection. I enjoyed the fight.

Georges St. Pierre was and continues to be my favorite fighter in the UFC (with Randy Couture a close second). He conducts himself as a professional athlete and a great person. He is honest and forthcoming with his opinions without being disrespectful or arrogant. Serra is very likable as well, but I never in a million years thought he would win. He deserves everything he gets from this win. Just overcoming the nerves facing a guy like GSP has to be tough enough, never mind actually performing. Long live the king — he has earned his crown.

Now to my training. First, I am not afraid of giving anything away to my UFC 71 opponent, Eric Schafer. “Red” comes from a very tough camp, and I’m certain they have him doing everything necessary to be successful.

As long as I have been training for top competitions — whether it was football, wrestling or now MMA — I am always learning and always changing my approach. For this fight in particular, I started training very hard at 12 weeks out. However, I didn’t even think about my diet until eight weeks out. This helped me avoid burnout. I learned from the Rashad Evans fight that I cannot maintain a strict diet and nutrition program for 12 weeks.

I am going twice a day five days, one time a day once a week, and taking one day off. I switch those days up depending on my attitude and mood. I still have those days when I wake up and decide that I’m not going to do a thing (those days are rare because I love to suffer), but sometimes mental strength is more important than physical strength. I have been training boxing, wrestling and jiu jitsu five days and combined it with lifting, running and rock throwing the remaining days.

When you have a wife, a son, and decide to quit your normal job to fight, there are no easy days. Lance Armstrong likes to describe his training as suffering. If you can get pleasure from suffering, I do agree with him — because I love the pain. Everyday of my life, I get punched in the face, someone tries to break my arm, choke me unconscious, break me mentally, I sweat more than most people think is safe, I lift weights until I can’t, I know that I have torn tendons and ligaments that will never be looked at, but I picked this life for myself and wouldn’t have it any other way. Some people love to read or write. Others love to learn or teach, but some of us love to suffer and sweat and care about little else.

Lucky are those that choose how they want to live. I will never know what a cubicle looks like, what rush hour feels like, or what it’s like to take orders from a boss, but I do know what it’s like to be on live TV, to be cheered by thousands, to sign autographs, to take pictures with people you don’t know, and to be loved and hated just the same. I hope that I have only scratched the surface of all these feelings. With my goals in mind, I hunt the feeling and reality of becoming a world champion. I want all of you out there to either love me or hate me, but I pray most of you love me.

- Sean Salmon

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Sean Salmon (9-2 MMA, 0-1 UFC) is a UFC fighter who will next fight Eric “Red” Schafer at UFC 71. The Columbus, Ohio-based fighter is sponsored by MMAjunkie.com and trains full-time in MMA. He pens his “Full-Time Fighter” column for MMAjunkie.com at least once per week. You can read his past columns in the archives.